Former Kidney Doctor Accepts Plea Bargain Harassment Charge Dropped After Frazier Pleads Guilty To Misdemeanor

A former Spokane doctor under investigation for Medicare fraud has pleaded guilty to a gross misdemeanor for interfering with Sacred Heart Medical Center.

In exchange for the plea, prosecutors dropped a more serious felony harassment charge against Dr. Mark Frazier, once a well-respected doctor who helped perform the city’s first kidney transplant in 1981.

Frazier, 51, was sentenced Wednesday to 362 days in jail and fined $250. The jail sentence was suspended.

The harassment charge carried a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The misdemeanor charge carried up to one year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

Prosecutors agreed to the plea because Frazier had no prior criminal history and he’d taken steps to correct his behavior, Deputy Prosecutor Larry Steinmetz said.

“My aim in this was to get the doctor help and to protect the hospital,” he said.

Frazier’s lawyer, Charles Rohr, couldn’t be reached for comment.

But Rohr and Frazier have maintained that the charges were unwarranted and exaggerated. Frazier has said the hospital and other doctors conspired against him to destroy his livelihood and take away his business.

Frazier was accused in June of threatening the life of Dr. Curtis Wickre, the medical director of Sacred Heart’s kidney center.

Court papers said Frazier lashed out at other doctors and staff members, carried weapons to work in the trunk of his car, and targeted joggers with a laser-sighted rifle as they ran past his home.

The hospital spent $108,000 on security after officials began taking Frazier’s threats seriously.

Frazier voluntarily entered the C.F. Menninger Memorial Hospital in Topeka, Kan., in July. He was released about a month ago, and he’s now living near his family in Omaha, Neb.

Hospital officials were pleased with the plea agreement.

“The hospital is supportive of this,” said Roger Chase, a hospital lawyer who said Frazier doesn’t plan to return to Spokane. “We think it’s a fair and reasonable resolution.”

Frazier also was placed on probation for two years. He must meet a list of conditions.

He cannot use or possess alcohol or illegal drugs; he cannot go to an establishment that primarily sells alcohol; and he can’t possess any firearms or dangerous weapons.

He must continue any required treatment program and take any medication required by doctors at the Menninger hospital.

He must submit to regular alcohol and drug testing. He cannot contact any witnesses listed by police, and he must stay at a fixed residence in Omaha unless he has permission from his community correction officer to leave.

Frazier cannot enter Spokane County without first notifying the head of Sacred Heart Medical Center security. If he does comes to Spokane, he can’t be within two blocks of the hospital or of the homes and employers of witnesses listed by police.

All his firearms must be turned over to Rohr.

“If in fact he does rebuild his life, there’s opportunity for him to do so, and I’m very happy for that,” said Mike Stultz, the manager of security services for Sacred Heart.

Frazier still faces civil charges from the state Medical Quality Assurance Commission, which could yank his license to practice medicine in Washington.

Frazier and his former clinic, Northwest Nephrology Associates, also are being investigated for allegedly overbilling Medicare. He could face both criminal and civil federal charges in connection with the federal investigation, perhaps as early as this month.

, DataTimes